~ Village Teacher – The Book & Photographs

Northern Cardinal

Today the sky was mostly cloudy and it was rather nippy outside. A lot of birds came to our bird feeder. At one time, as I walked by the patio door, I saw three bright red Northern Cardinals perched on the magnolia tree, waiting for their turn. I got my camera out and started shooting, first with the 1.4 extender attached to the lens.

Male Northern Cardinal.

Male Northern Cardinal.

Male Northern Cardinal.

Two hours later, they were still flying in and out. This time I did not use the 1.4 extender.

Male Northern Cardinal.

Male Northern Cardinal.

Female Northern Cardinal landing on a branch. Her right leg is motion blurred.

I prefer the shots taken without the 1.4 extender as they are noticeably sharper, which will come in handy with large-size prints for framing. However, the ones with the extender are really not too bad.

I think that they are all excellent, but your remarks about the ones shot without the extender being sharper may be because of they way the images are presented in your blog doesn’t show any difference in sharpness that I can detect. I may have to do some more experimenting myself in the near future.